Columbus teachers work a variety of secondary summer jobs

Request to buy this photoFRED SQUILLANTE | DISPATCHTony Phillips, a science and math teacher who manages the Eastmoor community pool during the summer

Request to buy this photocourtesy of Kelly MorganThird-grade teacher Kelly Morgan (in a gray T-shirt), who shows pigs from her stepfather’s farm

Request to buy this photoFRED SQUILLANTE | DISPATCHMike Mundew, who funds worldwide trips with his work as a luggage loader at Port Columbus — and tells stories of his travels to motivate his detention-center students

“At the end of the school day, I am mentally drained,” he said. “Here, I am physically drained.”

The physical nature of the summer work, Phillips said, provides a welcome change of pace — as do the summer attitudes of young people.

“Kids at school don’t always look forward to coming to school and sitting through lessons. That’s not the case here.”

Phillips spreads his love of swimming in the classroom by giving pool passes to well-behaved students.He also helped extend a YMCA swimming program to Windsor.

He appreciates the extra money from the summer job, Phillips said, but he wants mostly to keep the 57-year-old pool thriving and create a safe hangout for his daughters and other children.

“I watch so many families enjoy this, and I look forward to it.”

* * *

Mike Mundew

• Age: 54

• School: Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center

• Subject: science

• Summer job: luggage loader, American Eagle airline system

To help his students realize the world’s vastness, Mundew shows them photographs of his favorite trips.

He has introduced struggling students — including many gang members — to Hawaii, Spain and Switzerland.

Mundew facilitates his travels by working more than 30 hours a week at Port Columbus during the summer. (He works fewer hours during the school year.)

Besides his wages, he receives travel perks from American Eagle.

Mundew — a teacher for 25 years, including the past 11 at the detention center — helps load 60 to 150 bags on each plane.

“Some people don’t pack light,” he said. “There are a lot of people who pay the fees for heavy luggage.”

He also uses a tractor to push planes out to runways.

The excitement he still gets from watching takeoffs is the type he aims to instill in his detention-center students through his travel stories.

“I just try to do something that motivates them so they don’t come back.”

* * *

Kim Montague

• Age: 53

• School: Fifth Avenue International School K-8

• Subjects: language arts, social studies

• Summer job: pharmacist

What prompted Montague to become a pharmacist in 1984 — “the caring for people, the compassion” — more recently drew her to teaching.

“I wasn’t rejecting pharmacy,” she said of her decision to become a full-time teacher six years ago.“I just found another way to express myself.”

Yet she didn’t leave her white lab coat entirely behind.

Working several shifts a week at Columbus-area CVS pharmacies during the summer (and one Sunday a month during the school year) has allowed her to keep her skills updated and help fund college for her two children.

As a volunteer in their classrooms during their younger years, she said, she saw the amazement “when the light bulb goes off for a kid.”

She takes to school an attitude not unlike the one she exhibits at the pharmacy counter: Whether dealing with customers or students, she focuses on education.

One big difference between the professions, though: When away from the pharmacy, she forgets about work.

“With teaching, it’s 24/7,” she said. “When you come home, you’re still thinking about what you could do better for the kids.”

* * *

Justin DeWolfe

• Age: 40

• School: Walnut Ridge High School

• Subject: chemistry

• Summer job: opera singer

Students might have caught DeWolfe singing during the final few weeks of school.

Although he has balked at student requests to show off his voice, he couldn’t help himself in May after landing the part of Betto in the recent Opera Project Columbus production of the Italian opera Gianni Schicchi.

“I would burst into song in the hallway while walking to my planning period,” said the trained chemist and classical singer.

The experience — he was paid for the part — helped DeWolfe realize he could juggle two passions.

For years, he had struggled to choose between them — having fallen in love with both music and chemistry as a teenager.

The baritone had resigned himself to singing for his own enjoyment only (he left music school one recital short of graduation), but fellow choir members at the First Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ encouraged him to audition for the opera.

Having not done a large production in years, he approached the role with the type of problem-solving he uses in chemistry: He analyzed each musical passage and translated every Italian word.

“It consumed me,” he said. “Thankfully, school was winding down.”

With Gianni Schicchi behind him, DeWolfe plans to take voice lessons during the rest of his break.

“I had forgotten how much I love singing.”

* * *

Kelly Morgan

• Age: 36

• School: Parsons Elementary School

• Subjects: all third-grade subjects

• Summer job: hog raiser

Most of her urban students couldn’t imagine bathing or walking a pig.

“They are taken aback by it,” Morgan said.

During summers, she helps her stepfather on his farm in Fayette County and shows pigs with her 18-year-old nephew at fairs and competitions nationwide.

She drives almost daily to the farm, 35 minutes from her Pickaway County home, to help with the 20 show pigs — plus piglets and other pigs — in the family business, Mitchem Show Pigs.